


Master Of Anticipation

by sapphicserenity



Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-01
Updated: 2020-05-14
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:00:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 11,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22512874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphicserenity/pseuds/sapphicserenity
Summary: AU: Arsenal WFC has a new manager: ex Arsenal player herself, Danielle van de Donk. She finds herself attracted to one of their star players, Beth Mead. An attraction she can't act on. But as the two professionals slowly develop feelings for each other, can they manage to keep things professional?
Relationships: Daniëlle van de Donk/Beth Mead
Comments: 41
Kudos: 152





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm back! This time not with a one shot but with the start of a fic. The idea of Daan being a manager and Beth being on her team came to me the other day and I just had to write it. Let me know if you like it! That motivates and inspires me to update and keep the story going. Enjoy reading <3

It was a sunny February Monday afternoon: Usually the Arsenal squad has their day off on Monday, but today they had gatherer in the meeting room to meet their new manager, former Arsenal player and Netherlands international Danielle van de Donk. 

Beth and her teammate Jill Roord were the first ones to enter the meeting room together, Beth still stuffing the last bit of the biscuit she just had with her coffee in the lunch room intp her mouth.

“Daantje!” Jill went in for a hug with the manager who has been awaiting the squad in the room. They played together for years. Beth stood next to them. 

“Hi, I’m Daan” Daan put her hand out towards Beth. 

“Hi” Beth mumbled as they shook hands. She couldn't say her name because her mouth was still stuffed full with the biscuit. Maybe that was not her best first impression. 

Beth remembered playing against Daan on both international and club level all too well. She was always such a jerk on the pitch, harshly fouled Beth a couple of times and always got away with it. She has something real cocky about her. She doesn’t like that in a person. 

Leah Williamson, Jordan Nobbs, Lia Walti and Victoria Pelova all know Daan well too from playing with her and quickly hug her when they come in. When everyone has made their way in and has sat down Daan clears her throat and starts her introduction to the whole squad: 

“Hi, I’m Danielle. But you can all call me Daan or DVD” 

The new manager starts the powerpoint presentation introducing herself and talking about her professional football career. European Champions with the Netherlands in 2017 and 2021, World Cup Final in 2019. Champions with Arsenal multiple times. It’s a career the youngsters in the squad dream of. 

Daan retired from football and left Arsenal just before Beth joined from Manchester City. Daan then became a manager at PSV, her club back home in the Netherlands. She first coached a youth team for a year, then the seniors for two years. Now she’s back at Arsenal. She was very successful at managing PSV, they became champions under her lead and made it to the quarter finals of the champions league. She has raised the popularity of the league in the Netherlands and has forced the associates to acknowledge and develop the league. At 32 years old she had proven herself to be able to push athletes to be the best versions of themselves. To make their dreams come true. Breaking through barriers for women’s football and leadership. 

“I want to set up a meeting with all of you tomorrow personally, to get to know you better as players, especially the people I haven’t played with, to discuss what you expect from me and what I expect from you” Daan informed the squad. Her way of working seemed to be connecting with every player individually and bringing them together.

“I still can’t believe you’re my boss now” Leah jokes.

“Better get used to it honey” Daan jokes back. It lightens up the mood in the room a little. She continues her presentation and talks about what she loves about Arsenal and what her vision for the rest of the season is with much enthusiasm. 

“I think we’re finished here. I’ll go stand by the door and as you each leave the room I’ll let you know the time I have our meeting planned” 

Beth was one of the first players to walk up to Daan. 

“Beff Mead” Beth’s name came out funny because of Daan’s Dutch accent.  
Daan checked the spreadsheet she is holding.

“I have you scheduled at 12 tomorrow” 

“I’ll be there” Beth confirms. 

“Good” Daan winks at Beth. There it is again, that streak of arrogance. It bothered Beth about this woman. 

— 

The next morning Beth was getting ready for her meeting with their new manager. She’s putting in some extra effort on her looks today. 

“What you done your make up for, you usually don’t care about that stuff” Leah pointed out as Beth walks into their living room. 

“I want to make a good impression” Beth tells Leah. 

“You sure it’s not because you think she’s attractive?” 

“No I definitely don’t, why?” 

“Everyone thinks Daan is attractive” Leah informed her. 

“Well I don’t” Beth claims.

“Hmmm” Leah frowns at Beth, who was putting on her coat.

“What?” She was getting annoyed, too annoyed for Leah’s claim to not be true.

“Nothing, good luuuck” Leah teased, knowing her claim is right. She chuckled to herself, having way too much fun as Beth walked away and slammed the door of their home shut. Living with Leah and Jordan was a pain in the ass sometimes. 

— 

When Beth arrived, Vic has just finished her meeting with Daan.

“She told me to send you in if you were already waiting” Vic informed Beth. 

Beth nodded and head in, feeling strangely nervous. 

“Hi” Daan greeted her with a welcoming smile. 

“Hi” 

Beth sat down at the desk across of Daan. She took a look around to see how Daan has made the room hers. On the desk there is a picture of a little girl that looks just like her set up on it. Beth saw a couple of pictures of that girl on Daan’s Instagram too, she wondered if it was her child. Though she’d heard about Daan dating Jemma, an ex Arsenal player. They might’ve done IVF

“Okay Beff, I want to hear from you. What are your goals here? How do you see your role in the squad? Take it away” Daan leaned back in her chair.

Beth started rambling while playing with her hair out of nervousness. Beth hadn’t been happy at Arsenal lately, their previous manager just didn’t believe in her and it has made her lose faith in herself. She’s not the happy shiny eager player she used to be. She told Daan about how the previous manager made her feel like she didn’t belong on the team. How her goal for now is finding the joy in playing again, scoring goals again. Daan asked her some questions in between and Beth answers them openly, hoping that the fellow female athlete across of her would understand. 

“I’m so sorry that prick didn’t believe in you.” 

Beth frowns. Did she just call him a prick?

“Yes he’s a prick for that. I don’t like him either anyway. In my meeting with him he discussed all of you so impersonally. Not my style” 

Cool, Beth thought to herself. 

“In my opinion you’re the best winger on the team, don’t tell any of the other girls I said that though” Daan winked after that, being pleas 

Beth smiled back, her eyes squinting. She lighted up hearing someone thinks she’s of value to this team. She needed that.

“I don’t ever want you to consider leaving Arsenal. I want to make you feel like this is where you belong and I want to bring out the best in you. Make you enjoy the game again.” 

“I’d like that” Beth agreed. Maybe Daan is actually less ego-centric than she thought. She’s felt listened to this entire meeting. Daan had been taking notes and understandingly nodding the entire time. 

“One last thing” Daan prompts:

“I saw you stalked my Instagram last night”

Shit. She indeed spend an hour going through all of Daan’s instagram photos, but she does that with every new player on the squad too. She must have accidentally pressed the like button on one of her posts, and she hopes to god it wasn’t one of the bikini ones. Her face turned red, she avoided making eye contact and mumbles: 

“I was just... bored” 

“If it makes you feel better, I stalked yours too” Daan whispered. A tension arises between the two, still sat across each other. Beth got up to break the weird energy in the room. 

“I didn’t say you could leave yet” 

Beth turned her head to Daan and Daan gives her a serious look from in her chair. 

“Oh” Beth is about to sit down again when Daan grinned pleasingly to herself and admitted: 

“Nah just kidding, you can go” 

Beth got up again awkwardly, a little thrown off by her boss. 

“See you at training tomorrow” 

“Yeah. Thank you for listening” Beth replied as she closes the door behind her. 

When Mead had left the room, Daan lets herself fall back into her chair with a sigh. She knew that flirting with Mead is highly unprofessional. She never flirted with any of the girls at PSV even though multiple of the girls on the squad attempted to make a move with her. But Mead is so cute. Like really cute. Knowing you’re the boss in the room and seeing the blonde girl get nervous and stutter because of your teasing is amusing to say the least. The thought of seeing Mead at work again tomorrow already makes her smile to herself. 

\- 

Leah, Jordan and Beth had decided to start the first episode of a new Netflix series together before they head to bed early for training tomorrow. Jordan prepared some popcorn in the kitchen. 

Beth chilled on the sofa while she awaited their move night. She opened Instagram on her phone, only to find that username daniellevddonk has started following her. She clicked on Daan’s profile and followed her back, and decided that since she is on Daan’s page anyway, to go through her photo’s again. When she comes across another picture of Daan with the little girl that looks like her, she decides to ask Leah who was sat on the other sofa. 

“Is this Daan’s daughter and husband?” Beth holds out her phone screen in Leah’s direction. Leah checked the picture and has to stop herself from laughing. 

“No babes that’s her with her niece and her sisters husband. She’s one of us” 

“What do you- Oooh” It takes Beth a couple of seconds to realize that with one of us Leah means she likes girls. 

“You’re so oblivious Beth” Leah chuckles.  
“You know someone is gay when they post lots of pictures with their niece acting like it’s their child” Leah stated. 

“True” Beth couldn’t help but laugh at that. She’s guilty of sharing pictures of her baby cousin being adorable too. 

Why are you so interested in her?” Leah wants to know.

“I’m not, I just thought the little kid on her insta is really cute” Beth stated in her defense.

“Yeah sure..”

“I don’t like her vibe”

“You spend a lot of time on her instagram for someone who doesn’t like her vibe” 

Leah was kind of right but she will never admit that. What is she even doing on Daan’s page again, scrolling past all the photos she already studied yesterday? She closed the app. 

“Scootch over babygirl” Jordan walked up to the sofa with the bowl of popcorn. While there was plenty of space left, she launched herself onto Leah. 

“Jordan that’s burnt popcorn” Leah commented as Jordan made herself comfortable on her girlfriends lap after putting the popcorn down on the coffee table. 

“It’s still edible!” Jordan argued. 

“Well I’m not going to eat this” Leah argued. 

Jordan grabbed some of the popcorn and shoved it into Leah’s mouth. 

“See, it tastes just fine” 

Leah started playfully punching Jordan while chewing on the popcorn with a disgusted look on her face, to which Jordan had to laugh and punched her back.

“You two make me feel very single sometimes” Beth lets out with a sigh. She’s bored. 

“I’m sure Daan is lonely too.. in another country without her family you know, you should hit her up” Jordan commented. 

“Not you too.. Piss off”

Beth pressed start on the new series to make Jordan and Leah shut up. 

To be continued.


	2. Chapter 2

It was an early Tuesday morning at the Arsenal Training Centre, the first day of training under DvD’s lead. The team started their day in the gym. After doing some stretching yoga-like exercises as warm up it was time to work on upper body strength. 

Daan always loved working on upper body strength and showing off how many chin ups she can do. She had been pacing around the gym watching the team with way too much energy, so why not join them a little? Beth and some of the other girls were standing by the pull up machine chatting. Daan walked up to them. 

“Watch and be inspired” The new manager interrupts. She lifts herself up to the bar confidently and starts doing chin-ups. 

“Show off” Beth mumbles to Caitlin, one of her best friends on the squad. Caitlin couldn’t help but burst out laughing. 

Daan let herself drop onto her feet again when she overheard that and turned back to them. 

“What did you say?” 

“Nothing” Beth answered imminently. 

”She said you’re a show off” Beth gave Caitlin a punch. That girl can never keep her mouth shut. 

“Hmm” 

“Show me what you got then, Mead” Daan paved the way for Beth and gave her a nod. 

She can’t really back down now can she? She walked up to the machine and pulled herself up, showing Daan that she ain’t that special. 

“Hmm.. not bad” Daan commented when Beth lets herself fall down again. She turned around and walked away from them. Beth got back at Caitlin and pulled her into a headlock. 

After their gym session they had lunch, and at 1 PM they were out on the pitch for a training session. Beth was cold, they’re all gathered in a half circle waiting for Daan to come out and start the training, but having to stand still in short training tops and bottoms is no fun when it’s still February. When Daan arrived to the pitch not much later she noticed Beth was shivering, and she didn’t hesitate to show up behind Beth and rub her hands over the blonde girl’s arms to warm her up. 

“You cold?”

Beth did a little jump at the first touch. She looked to her side to find Daan peeking her head over her shoulder and looking at her with a smirk as she kept stroking her over Beth’s skin. Beth was left startled for a moment. 

“Y-yeah” 

“Better? Let’s start” 

Daan let go and walked into the middle of the circle, informing the players of what they’re gonna do. It came to her attention that Beth wasn’t really paying attention, which makes her grin. She caught her off guard there. 

After warming up they’re training on a quick 1v1, one player goes on a run with the ball and the other has to defend and prevent them from scoring into the tiny goal that is set up. Beth is up against Jill, she has to defend and Jill is attacking. Jill is not able to make her way past Beth, so Daan can’t make fun of that. But after, Beth has to let herself fall onto the ground due to a sudden cramp in her lower leg. 

“Muscle aches from the chin ups Beff?” Daan asks with a frown. 

“You’re a jerk” Beth teased, still rubbing over her leg waiting for the cramp to pass.

“You sure you want to call your manager that?” Daan replied. 

It felt like Daan is part of the team. Like she’s messing with a friend. You forget that the tiny smug former number 10 is the boss. 

“I keep forgetting you’re 150 cm tall self is the boss around here” Beth joked. Daan held her hand out to help Beth up but Beth gets up herself. 

“I’m 160, actually” Daan corrects her. They both gave each other a cheeky look. 

The more the training progresses, the more Beth came back into her flow and pace. She practiced some great crosses and goals. She felt seen, hyped up and supported by the new manager. She hadn’t felt this good while playing in a while. There’s a new wave of motivation throughout the whole team actually. Daan did not make it a secret that she wants to qualify for the champions league. They deserve their place in that league and they need to knock their way back. They’ve lost too many points by underperforming under their last manager to become champions, but they can still secure second third place if they step up their game. That’s what she’s here to do. 

Beth arrived home tired but also energized because of the trainings today. She always gets home earlier than Jordan and Leah, drives faster. Leah is cooking tonight so she’s responsibility free and decides to make herself a warm bath and let her muscles relax a bit after the intense day. 

While her bath is filling up she takes an after training bathroom mirror picture of her in a sports bra, her abs showing. She decides that she’s going to add it to her story, captioning it “training done for the day”  
There’s a grin on her face knowing Daan is going to see the picture as she hits the add to story button. She secretly hopes she will reply to it.

And just like she hoped, within 10 minutes the notification “daniellevddonk replied to your story” pops up. She grabs her phone from the side of the bath, almost dropping it into water when she’s in a hurry to open the message. 

“Show off ;) You were great in training today, looks promising for Sunday xxx”

Beth can’t help but smile widely while reading the message. On Sunday they play against Brighton, Daan’s first test. Then there’s a 2 week break in the WSL, the second week of their break they have a training camp to Switzerland scheduled. Today was the first fun day at work again in a while, and suddenly the training camp coming up doesn’t feel like something she doesn’t want to go to anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry if it’s a little too short for people’s liking! still trying to find the right length for chapters, bare with me ;)


	3. Chapter 3

It’s sunday, match day. Beth is feeling good about this North London derby. Training with Daan has given her new perspective. Their assistant manager pointed out how it seems like a weight has fallen off of Beth’s shoulders. The difference it makes to have a coach who believes in you.. She’s been delivering in training and hopes to do so on the pitch today too. She’s ready. 

14:55. Almost kick off time. As Daan watches her 11 starting players walk onto the pitch, she is suddenly overwhelmed with a feeling of home sickness. Home sickness to football. She misses playing herself. She could still be playing, she’s only 33, but it was the right time to retire. She got more prone to injury during her last year of playing and being benched is not something she settles for. It was time to say goodbye to that chapter. But she does miss the buzz, meadow park is packed today. Sold out. Playing at the Emirates is now a way more regular occurrence than when she played here. And in a little over a month, they’re playing Chelsea at the Old Trefford for the conti cup final. The conti cup final is going to be a big one for Daan, she wants to win that title to prove how capable her team is of success. Chelsea has been unbeatable this season, but Daan intends to beat them. First, Tottenham. Daan keeps nervously fixing her hair, tying and untying her ponytail before the referee blows the whistle and the game kicks off. Her focus is on the game now, paying attention to what the team can best do to get a win out of this.

At half time, it’s still 0-0. Arsenal dominates in ball possession but the forwards can’t seem to break through the strong spurs defense. Inside, Daan gives the girls a pep talk. She has a lot of things to point out. Halfway in, she addresses Beth personally. 

“Mead, I want you to be more confident. I know you’ve got it. Just shoot.”

Beth nods. She has been too nervous and hesitant on the ball, passing to players inside the box even though she knows there are too many defenders ganged up on them. She doesn't know what to do with herself right now, she isn't assured in her decision-making, which she needs to be. She's got the talent and the ability to go for goal herself. She feels good physically, she has 100% returned from injury, it’s only her mind holding her back. It's nice that Daan sees that. 

Back on the pitch, Beth seems to have let go of the insecurity more, around the 60th minute she delivers a cross so precise that Pernille Harder, the striker on their current squad, can’t do anything other than tip it in. Daan is filled with pride and relief when the first goal falls and wishes she could run up to Beth and Pernille to give them a big hug, but instead she has to contain herself and high fives and embraces some of the staff next to her. That’s what Daan misses about playing as well. She tries to be as close to players as possible, but at the end of the day you’re not part of the team. She just wants to jump onto the field right now. 

Beth has been making great runs ever since the cross. During the 75th minute she makes a run past two defenders and she sees opportunity to shoot on goal from about 30 yards away. The ball has power and the goalie wouldn’t be able to catch it, but it hits the crossbar. Daan has already jumped out of her chair and is yelling “Well Done!” Beth’s way, with her thumbs up in the air. Beth notices as she walks to position again and shoots their manager a bright smile. 

As Daan walks back to her seat, the assistant manager is giving her a side eye. It wasn’t a goal. She shouldn’t be so proud. But the boldness she told Beth to take on came out there for a second, and she’s really proud of that. She sits back down as nonchalantly as possible, acting like that burst of excitement didn’t just happen.

The end score is 2-0. Captain Nobbs puts one in the back of the net during the 87th minute. Daan is full of pride and love for her team. They all huddle together on the pitch in a circle, and Daan lets the team know how satisfied she is:

“Important three points. I’m really glad I could start my journey with yous off with this win. The eagerness you lot have on the pitch is our strength, I hope we can keep that up when we come back here in three weeks.”

As the team walks towards the tunnel, Daan approaches Beth to compliment the winger personally. 

“Hey you, you did great today” Daan puts her arm around Beth. Beth gives her a hug in response. 

“Thank you” 

Daan’s perfume is really nice. Beth realizes she probably doesn’t smell her best right now and quickly lets go. 

After having showered, taken selfies with the fans outside and eaten dinner at the club, Beth gets in her car to head home. She’s feeling upbeat and is humming her favorite Jess Glynne song as she gets in the car. Beth about to start the car when someone ticks on her window. 

“Beff!” 

It’s Daan again. Beth opens the window and Daan leans in. 

“Hi1 I just want to say: I know you doubt your abilities but I’ve seen some of your goals in the past and they were all from a place of boldness and fearlessness. I just really want you to find back that confidence, I don't know, I really believe in you and your potential. I saw you taking a step in the right direction today”

“Thank you for the trust and belief in me, means a lot” Beth tells her with a smile. 

Daan nods. Its silent for a second. Beth is kind of expecting Daan to walk away now. Instead sheis staring at Beth looking like she's about to say something else.

”I like you Mead, can you tell?”

Beth feels the space heaten up, her cheeks flushing and her heart beating faster as Daan’s words enter the car. Daan is giving a cheeky glance to the girl in front of her, her eyebrow slightly raised. Beth doesn’t know what to say or do in response to Daan's move. 

“See you on the plane to Switzerland” Daan adds, she knows she’s left Beth startled, which makes her smirk just before she turns around and walks off. 

Beth leans back into her car seat when Daan has turned around. She doesn’t realize the window is still open until she feels a cold breeze hit her cheek, cooling things down a little. Was that meant to be flirtatious? Because it felt like it. Beth bites her lip. She makes the window go up again and starts the engine to drive home, almost hitting a fence as she leaves the parking spot because she’s still thinking about Daan and what she just said. 

-

When Beth arrives home she finds Leah and Jordan already cuddled up on the couch with tea. Beth takes a seat in their living room chair.  
She needs to share this with the two, she hasn’t been able to think about anything else the whole car ride. 

“Daan annoys the fuck out of me. Is that part of her game here? the flirting?” 

Leahs frowns. She’s about to ask “what flirting?” when Beth already continues her rant. 

“I like you Mead” What’s that supposed to mean? She seems like the type who messes with girls on her team like that just for fun. Just because she knows she’s hot.” 

Leah chuckles.  
“So I was right, you do think she’s hot?”

“No!” Beth denies again. 

“Listen: Daan may seem like a fuckboy but she’s not. I think she’s highkey crushing on you. I see it in the way she looks at you” 

Beth’s stomach does a turn at Leah’s “I think she’s crushing on you.” She doesn’t know if it’s a good feeling or not.

“So she just praises me because she thinks I’m cute?” 

“Nah. She wouldn’t be like that. She truly sees something in you football wise too.” Jordan explains. 

“Why would she crush on me?” Beth wonders out loud. 

'Have you seen your own eyes Beth?” Jordan comments, which Beth doesn’t even pick up on because she’s too caught up in her own thought process.  
She gets up to head towards her room. 

When Beth is in bed she opens Instagram. 

“daniellevdd tagged her in an insta story.”

It’s a post of today’s score, captioned “great goals by nobbs & harder and a beauty of an assist by mead today. 3 points plus a clean sheet. my team <3”

There’s a next story. It’s a picture a photographer took of Daan, and Beth notices it was taken when she almost scored. Daan jumping out of her chair. She’s captioned it: “That winning feeling” 

Beth stares at the adorable picture for a while and catches a smile on her face. Fuck, she’s really starting to feel things, the “I like you mead” still spooking through her head. She doesn’t want to feel things, Daan is her boss and she is smug and arrogant. She needs to focus on her career. She puts her phone away and stuffs her face into her pillow, letting out a deep muffled sigh, fighting the butterfly feeling in the pit of her stomach as she thinks of the picture, the words, the girl.


	4. Chapter 4

Beth spends her first week of holiday at home in Yorkshire and the second week with her best friend in Mallorca. Jordan and Leah have been busy moving out of their apartment, they’ve bought their own home. Beth reckoned it would be better if she didn't stand in the way.  
Beth has been looking at buying a house too now that they’re moving out. She had a couple of sightings but nothing has felt like her home just yet. 

She’s now at the gate of London Luton airport with the arsenal squad, waiting to board on the plane to Switzerland. Training camp. She’s actually been looking forward to this camp, and that’s all to do with Daan, who she annoyingly couldn’t get of her mind during the break. 

As the girls board the plane their assistent manager lets them know which rows on the plane are Arsenal’s. Beth is one of the first to walk in so she claims a window seat. She puts her bag away and starts connecting her AirPods to her Ipad that she sets up in front of her, intending to watch some Friends episodes this flight. 

As Daan walks onto the plane a moment later, she eyes Beth sitting alone, so she walks up to the blonde girl. 

“Hey, anyone sitting here?” 

“Hi! No” 

Daan sits down next to Beth, who immediately feels her body grow tense.

The tension rises even more as Daan puts her hand on Beth’s leg for a second while she leans down to grab something from her handbag that she's put on the floor. She’s not going to be able to watch Friends on this flight is she? 

“How was Mallorca?” Daan asks as she's sat up again. 

Daan knows Beth has been to Mallorca because she reacted with heart eye emoji’s to multiple of her insta stories. Three heart eyes for the bikini picture, Beth had noticed. Beth tells Daan a little about the trip and then asks Daan about what she has spend her time doing. She had her family from the Netherlands over in her new home. 

The pilot interrupts their conversation to announce the basic flight info. They’re about to take off. No one claims the last seat in their row, maybe sitting next to the boss is too intimidating for some. Even though the extra seat gives Daan two seats and more space, she stays seated pretty close to Beth. Beth and Daan fasten their seatbelts and Beth opens Netflix on the Ipad. She‘s still intending to watch some Friends, even with miss distraction next to her. 

“Oeh friends! Love that show. Can I watch along?” Daan asks when she sees what Beth is up to. 

“You can also watch by yourself if you want” Daan adds. 

“No that’s okay” Beth shares one of the airpods with Daan, Daan moves even closer to Beth so she can see what's on the screen. 

While watching, they keep giggling at the same jokes and situations and then take a glance at each other every time. 

Into the second Friends episode, Daan falls asleep, her head moving closer and closer to Beth’s shoulder as she snoozes off and eventually landing onto it. With Daan asleep on her shoulder, Beth can’t focus on the next episode. She decides to stop the episode and close her eyes too. 

Daan wakes up just before landing, and she finds Beth asleep too. Damn, she looks really, really cute while sleeping. Her mouth has fallen open. The manager takes a secret picture of her protegee, she has something funny in mind to create out of that later. 

On the bus ride to their hotel, Daan has time to edit the picture. She decides to not take place to Beth this time so she can’t see what she’s up to. 

Daan has finished her work after 10 minutes. She edited a burger emoji into Beth’s mouth. She sends it to Beth privately on Instagram, with the caption “sleeping beauty”

Beth has been scrolling through Instagram and when a notification from the woman 5 feet away from her pops up she immediately opens it. The picture makes her laugh a little too hard, it has the rest of the bus looking at her. She looks up to find Daan looking at her direction and grinning. Beth messages her back 

“I’m so gonna get back at ya”

“The game is on” Daan replies. They take another cheeky glance at each other at the same time. 

-

After an hour on the bus they’ve arrived at camp in beautiful Switzerland. They’ve checked into their rooms, had lunch, some down time and now they’re headed to the first training of this camp. 

Daan is walking up to the training field together with Leah, who is helping her carry some water bottles and training essentials.

“Hey, so what’s the deal with Mead?” Leah proposes. 

“What about her?” Daan comments, obnoxious to what Leah is commenting on.

Leah gives her a “don’t act like you don’t already know” glance.  
“You spend a lot of time around her”

“Just getting to know my team”  
Daan says, suddenly acting distant from Leah. Trying to make clear she’s her boss, not her friend. 

Leah is right though, she constantly finds herself going up to the girl, flirting a little here and there. Sending heart eyes emoji on Instagram like she’s a teenager. She doesn’t even realize what she’s doing when she’s doing it. She should pay more attention to paying less attention to her number 23, it’s unprofessional. Especially if teammates are starting to see it. 

“Okay” Leah comments, not convinced. 

\- 

Beth has been on fire this training session. They worked on developing their set pieces, and Beth took an impressive long range free kick that went in.  
But Daan hasn’t been cheering and encouraging her on this training, Beth has noticed. She’s been acting cold all of the sudden. And when walking towards the hotel for dinner, Daan started speed walking when Beth started walking next to her. Did she do something wrong?

The football table in the middle of their lobby is the squads occupation after dinner, Beth and Leah are playing against Jordan and Lauren.  
It’s 9-8 for Beth and Leah, Jordan gives her players a good spin and the ball fires towards goal, but Beth manages to save it with the goalie. 

“Beth has defensive skills?” Jordan jokes.

“Piss off” 

Now Beth spins it forward to Leah. Leah gives the ball a good extra spin and they score. They've won 10-8.They jump into each other’s arms cheering like they’ve just won the WSL. Then they laugh at Jordan, Jordan does not like losing.

Daan has been hanging in the lobby too, but she’s been on her phone. Beth kind of was hoping she’d have joined the table football. She didn’t. Beth's company decides to call it a night after this round, but she tells them she’s staying down. They give her a weird look but don’t question her any further. 

When the girls have gone up the elevator, Beth walks up to Daan, putting her hand on her shoulder as a greeting. 

“Hey you” 

Daan removes Beth’s hand from her shoulder roughly, almost immediately. Beth lends her a confused look on her face. 

“I’m your boss, your flirting is unprofessional” Daan claims. 

“I’m not... what?”

Beth is thrown off by what her manager is claiming. She has been the one been flirting herself, right? 

“Just head to bed, we train tomorrow morning.” Daan cuts her off.  
The energy feels cold, distant. Not the warm, cheerful energy she is usually met with. 

Beth leaves as she's told to. She walks into the elevator with a heavy feeling on her chest. She doesn’t know why she wants to cry but she does. Maybe because she finally felt comfortable in the team again with Daan as manager. She’d been so sweet the first week. 

She rooms with Pernille Harder this trip. When Beth enters the room Pernille is facetiming her girlfriend Magda, who plays for Chelsea. Beth is suddenly overcome by a feeling of loneliness as she lets herself fall onto her bed. She misses having someone to call, talk about her day with, she doesn’t really have that someone in her life. Yeah she has her best friends from home, but they’re not footballers and that makes a difference. 

For some reason she thought that in Daan she’d found a connection like that. Or maybe it was more of a feeling. 

A feeling that now feels so far away.


	5. Chapter 5

When Beth leaves her room to go down for breakfast, the girl that occupied her mind all night is about to step onto the elevator. The rest of the hall is empty, everyone else is at breakfast already. Beth is late because she barely got any sleep in. Daan is late because her hair wasn’t cooperating. 

“Daan! Wait please” 

Daan waits. 

Beth catches up to her and stands in front of her. She needs to talk about this. She starts rambling:

“So I just need to talk to you about this because it kept me up all night. I had a really bad experience with our last manager and I think that’s why I really want us to be good and I don’t know what made you think I was flirting with you but I really wasn’t and-”

There’s a word vomit coming out of the northern girls’ mouth and it’s hard to understand what she’s saying. But it’s cute how worried she is about it. It takes Daan a lot of self-control to not just slam the girl against the wall and make her shut up with a kiss. But that is never allowed to happen. Which is why she was acting distant yesterday.. sigh. It’s not working. When you’re working with a team, you have to be close to the players. 

“I’m sorry. I was worrying about if I’m doing the right job yesterday and I was being unprofessional to you. We’re good mead, I promise you” Daan explains. 

With worrying about doing the right job she means worrying about Beth and crossing boundaries. She doesn’t say that. 

Beth lets out a sigh of relief. 

“I know people always come to you for coaching and stuff but.. I’m here for you too, you must need someone to talk to sometimes too”

“Thank you”

“And I think you’re doing a great job” Beth adds. 

“You’re trying to win points with me Beff?” Daan replies teasingly.

“Shut up” 

She lightly pushes Daan shoulder and they both laugh. 

Beth feels lighter now. They’re back to fun banter and it’s like yesterday never happened. They enter the elevator together and head to breakfast. 

After an intense training session and some rest the bus is driving the squad into Gevena, the city closest to where they’re training in southern Switzerland for an afternoon off. Beth and Daan were both smart enough to think of asking Lia Walti, who is Swiss, to be their tour guide. Lia proposed that they would roam around the city the three of them. They were both up for that. 

Through roaming around Geneva with Lia and Beth, Daan gets to know Beth better outside of the game. She’s chatty, very light-hearted and funny, loves to make people smile. Daan has been smiling so much that her cheeks feel like they’re on fire. That says something. She radiates a positive lively energy, and she’s attentive and sweet. When they passed a souvenir shop with cute stuffed animals and other kid stuff, Beth asked Daan if she didn’t want to get her little niece something. Something she didn’t even think of herself. 

Daan is witty, she makes quick funny smart remarks that make Beth laugh more than with anyone else. She’s always ready for an aesthetic picture and always looks good on one, and Beth is totally objectively judging. She’s confident and knows what she’s doing. How she’s feeling is hard to read, she’s pretty guarded. But she 's been laughing at her jokes and smiling a lot, so Beth takes it as that she’s feeling better than last night. 

Lia happens to know a cozy coffee shop and the girls spend over an hour in there talking. Even though Beth and Daan are drinking coffee and Lia is drinking tea, Lia teaches them to cheer in Swiss-German. 

“Proscht” Beth and Daan say in harmony, looking right into each other’s eyes as they clink the cups together, totally forgetting Lia. 

“Hello I’m here too” Lia comments with her tea cup in the air. The girls both quickly toast with Lia as well. It's almost like their tour guide isn't there at times.

After a chat in the coffee shop they continue roaming around the city and take some cute pictures of each other in front of the Geneva water fountain. Beth loves the pictures Daan took of her. She knows how to capture her. On the bus ride back to the hotel at 5, Beth uploads one of them to her Instagram. 

Daan is sat in the back of the bus and when she sees the picture on Instagram, she likes it and then privately messages Beth in reply to it: “a hot burger” 

Beth smiles at the message. It’s so cheesy but cute. She is sat down in the front, next to Jill, who notices Beth’s giggling. 

“What are you smiling at? Cute girl you’re talking to?” Jill gives Beth a punch with her elbow and tries to glance over to see who she’s messaging. 

Beth immediately hides her phone and tells Jill it’s “none of her business” 

But Jill is Jill and doesn’t let that slide. 

“Is it someone I know?”

Beth gives her a side eye. 

“So is that a yes?”

Beth tunes back into her phone and ignores her annoying teammate. 

“I’ll figure it out” Jill rubs her hand together. 

After dinner with the team and staff, most of the squad hangs in the lobby playing games again. Beth walks into the lobby with the intention to join in on game night, but then she notices Daan. She is sat at a table for two with her laptop, looking rather upset by something. 

She should just join in with the squad, but there’s this need to know how Daan’s doing, she’s just so intrigued by her.

Beth walks over to her to check in. 

“Everything okay?”

“Yeah, sit down” Daan welcomes her. 

She is in need of some company. She’s been feeling alone.

“I’m supposed to prepare things for tomorrow but my mom just texted me some pictures of her birthday celebrations with the family and it’s making me miss home. After living back around my family for 2 years, it’s hard being away from them this much again” 

Beth nods understandingly. 

“I can imagine. the hardest part about the job isn’t it?” 

“Yeah”

“You can always call me when you’re feeling lonely back in London, Jordan and Leah are moving out so I’m in need of some new company to watch football or movies with.” Beth proposes. 

“That’s sweet but I’m not sure that’s a great idea” She declines. 

“Why?” 

“You know why” Daan whispers with piercing eyes. Beth feels a butterfly like feeling emerging in her stomach. Daan bites her lip. The two sit across each other, avoiding eye contact and not saying anything else. Like it’s forbidden. 

Beth breaks the silence by asking if it’s okay if she’s gonna go play a game. 

“Yeah, go” 

Beth gets up and walks up to the girls playing a card game. She knows she’s going to lose. Because all that’s on her mind are Daan’s words again.


	6. Chapter 6

On the fourth day in Switzerland Arsenal plays a friendly against Bayern München, who are also training in Switzerland. 

Training camp has been quite tough on Beth’s body, especially after coming back from the calf injury she’s had.  
She’d felt a niggle on the third day of training so she’s kept on the bench to be sure she doesn’t injure herself again. 

The girls play 2-2, two goals by Harder. Not bad. Daan writes down a lot during the game, it had so many points to take away from. The fact that they did not come out of the game with a loss, means that they can stand their ground against champions league teams, yet there are many points to approve on as well. 

Beth has been staying away from Daan a little, not approaching her, letting her focus on work. 

Any personal contact ever since the “you know why” conversation had stayed out, but after the game Daan put her arm around Beth and asked if her calf was feeling better than the day before in a soft voice. Beth found that so sweet. It was such a tender gesture from her boss, who had started to feel like more than just a boss. 

On the fifth day they’re flying back. Beth takes a picture of the beautiful landscapes they pass by during the drive to the airport and uploads it to her insta, writing down 'bye beautiful switzerland'  
Beth’s bestie replies to her insta story:

“FaceTime tonight? Xxx” 

That’s just what she needs. As soon as she has arrived home from the airport and has installed herself into bed, she makes a call to her bestie. 

“How do you get over feelings for your boss?” Beth asks her 3 minutes into the call. It’s on her mind, she needs to talk about it. 

“Whoa hold up... spill all the tea Bea” 

Beth explains the situation and how it is making her feel. 

Al’s first response is: 

“Watch a video of how she beat you at the Olympics hun. Maybe you’ll hate her again.” 

That’s actually not a bad idea. There was a time where she was annoyed with Daan. Where there was zero attraction. Was. Past tense. 

“How did you even get yourself in this situation” Al asks after that, chuckling. 

“I don’t know! She started flirting with me. It’s her fault” 

Al is just laughing at Beth and how heated she looks about it. The girl who is usually always so calm and chill.

“This isn’t funny Al” 

“Find another girl to focus on. Download Tinder” Al suggests. 

“Hmm I might” Beth sighs. 

She changes the topic to Mallorca and they reminisce about the vacation they had. 

When Al hangs up to watch Love Island, Beth puts the TV on too and downloads Tinder while having Love Island on in the background. She updates her pictures and adds the cute one from in Geneva. She doesn't really like Tinder but it may be a good distraction. She gets swiping and then, a couple of swipes in, she is met by Daan’s profile. Oh god. Danielle, 31. Football manager. Her bio says rebel with a cause. The first picture is a selfie she hadn’t seen before. The second picture is one of her keeping up a ball in heels. There’s some more pictures she already knows from Instagram. They’re all beautiful, of course they are. Beth studies her profile for a good two minutes until she screenshots her tinder discovery and sends it through to Al. 

“Oh my god”

“What do I do Al, should I swipe right so she sees my profile? 

“Yes! Do it”

Beth goes back to staring at Daan’s profile.  
She swipes right and then goes back to studying her own profile, making sure it looks cute. Then she closes the app. So Tinder’s not gonna work.

She really can’t get away from this woman. 

She thinks of texting Jill to see if she wants to go clubbing tomorrow night. They still have this weekend off before back to training. Better make use of it right? She needs it. 

Jill immediately messages back, she is in. Great. 

Beth stares at her TV screen, she hasn't been paying attention to the episode though. Daan is on tinder. Of course, she’s new in the area again. Beth wonders if she’s even the type to date, if she doesn’t just play around. Has some tinder hookups here and there and just keeps it at that. Leah said she’s not like that but she wants to know what Daan IS like then. Maybe it's time for another Instagram stalk. 

\- 

Daan arrives home very tired but satisfied with how the training camp went. She feels like the team is headed in the right direction. She takes a nap on the couch and when she wakes up she lets herself have one glass of wine while cooking pasta. She puts on some dutch music to jam to as well. Its makes her home feel less alone. Her dad calls after dinner and she has a good chat with him. 

She’s in bed by 11 pm, but since she’s napped earlier she’s not tired anymore. She opens the Tinder app out of boredom. 

And after a couple of swipes, she’s met with a familiar profile. Beth. 27. She smiles at the picture she took being her first profile picture. The next picture is a selfie where her eyes just enlighten the whole screen by being so bright blue, yet the selfie doesn’t do her eyes justice. She's so beautiful.  
She can’t swipe right. She just can’t. She continues swiping for a while but everyone she comes across is swiped left. She’s picky, no one compares.

-

Saturday night in London city, Beth is out for the night with Jill and Vic.  
They start the night at a bar drinking and chatting away.

When Vic has gone off to the bathroom, Beth decides to ty to get more answers about Daan out of Jill. 

“So you know who I came across on tinder last night?”

“Who?” 

“Daan”

Jill chuckles. 

“The little flirt, only returned for 2 weeks and already playing girls again” She jokes.

“Yeah? Is she like that?” Beth now prompts, hoping Jill doesn’t question her curiosity.

“Nah I’m just kidding. She used to be. At some point she stopped messing around and focused on work.” 

“But hey, did you swipe right?” Jill asks. 

“Left of course, she’s our boss” Beth lies. It’s for the best. Jill is not allowed to know. 

“Oh yeah I keep forgetting she is. If she wasn’t you two would make a great couple”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. Just a feeling. You’re both tiny and annoying” Jill grins. Beth gives her a stump with her feet as she takes a sip of her cocktail. 

It does make her feel something to hear that though. Jill thinks they’d make a great couple.  
Beth doesn’t know about that, but she does know that the attraction can’t be ignored forever. Daan feels it, she feels it.

The three footballers head to the club. Vic keeps complaining about her dress not being comfortable and how she would’ve preferred to be in bed watching Netflix. Jill is happy to be dancing. She enjoys being around these two idiots, they make her laugh. 

The club is crowded, but fun. The music and vibe is good. There’s a woman making eye contact with Beth the whole night. She has dark hair and kind of similar features to Daan. Definitely her type. When she ends up kissing her deep into the night, she can’t stop thinking what it would be like to be kissing Daan. She’s into this though, this woman is a really good kisser. She likes her, and she’s drunk. The woman asks her if she wants to head somewhere private. She hesitates, she needs to let Jill and Vic know though, she’s not one to leave her friends behind. And she doesn’t know if she can trust drunk Jill and Vic. Jill already drunkenly danced on the bar and almost tripped while getting off. 

'Hold up' 

She walks over to Jill. 'If you're wondering where i am, i am with a really hot girl okay?'

'That's okay silly, go get it'

Beth goes back to the woman, who gives her a weird look. 'Yes, sorry, I had to check in with my friends'

Jill and Vic shake their heads, so typical Beth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> didn't really know how to end this chapter but hope you all like it, i think the next chapter will be a long one so look forward to that :) we're all going through this weird isolation time together and I love giving you guys something to read! stay safe and at home everyone x


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> guess who’s backkk ;) sorry for the long wait guys, I know some of you have been asking for the next chapter for a while and I’m really excited to now share it with you all! Finally had the inspiration to write it. Hope it lives up to all the expectations.

Back to training at London Colney again, with the big conti cup final in sight but a home game against Brighton up first. Back to training means back to being around Daan again. 

It’s 9 AM when Daan walks into the lounge room to get some coffee. Beth is stood by the coffee machine just about to grab her coffee that’s ready, and is frankly standing in the way of the cups. 

“Goodmorning Meado, Sorry” Daan puts her hands on Beth’s waist and pushes her aside a bit to reach for a cup.

“I’ll go sit down in a bit so you have room, hold up” Beth stutters as she grabs her coffee and makes space. She makes her way to the couch as quick as she can, the coffee almost spilling over.  
“Betty, I heard you got it on” That’s how Leah enters the lounge room just as Beth sits down. She launches herself onto the couch next to Beth, her coffee almost spilling over again. 

“Sssssh” Beth whispers, as she gives Leah a little shoulder push and grants Jill who is sat opposite to them a cheeky glance. 

Daan turns her head around to face the group while waiting for the machine to be done with making her coffee. 

“Did you get her number?” 

“I did actually” Beth confesses. Not that she was going to do anything with her number. This was just a one time thing. Distraction.. not that that was successful. 

Jill whistles. She’s obviously the snitch here. 

Beth takes a glance at Daan, which makes Daan look away quickly, acting like she wasn’t staring and listening. Beth caught her though. It makes her feel in power for once, where as she had felt so powerless around Daan. 

Daan has returned to her coffee and is feeling a tinge of jealousy about what she just heard and she doesn’t know what to do with the feeling. She is sleeping with other girls while she is right here. Suddenly she doesn’t want to be the manager anymore, but on the team again. It would’ve made these feelings so much easier. They’re so strong and do not feel like a little crush she can just let go and move on from. It feels like a collision waiting to happen. It is dangerous. 

After a short briefing on Brighton, the team gathers on the pitch for a training. Beth is in a cheerful mood. The feeling of the fresh morning sun hitting her skin as she walks onto pitch makes her smile without reason to. She loves being out here. It makes her forget everything. All of her feelings turn into focus. Her only love here is the game. 

The team photographer is at training today, taking pictures for the socials.

Daan decides she wants to join in on a game with the team as she watches one of her staff members instruct the girls. She misses the joy of playing, and it will make for funny pictures. 

So when they get to playing a bit of football in teams, Daan participates. She puts herself in the team against Beth. They give each other a quick intense glance before the game starts. Beth so wants to beat her.

But Daan is not allowing that. When Beth first gets on the ball she immediately sprints up to her, dueling her. They’re basically in a 1v1. After a lot of pushing and turning around Daan megs Beth and wins the ball. Beth is annoyed. She should’ve won that battle. Daan has caught her off guard twice today already, and all she wanted was some control this time. 

Out of Daan’s regaining of ball position, her team scores. 

“I’ll get back at you” Beth yells Daan’s way, which makes her walk up closer to Beth with a smug look on her face.

“Come at me” she says teasingly, as she walks backwards to get into position, still with her eyes on Beth. 

Daan can’t help it, all the banter with this girl just becomes flirty. She drew a line, but coloring a little outside the lines has always been Daan’s way of having fun. 

Daan’s flirty gaze makes Beth’s stomach do a turn. She stares at her getting ready to play again, redoing her ponytail. She is even more attracted to Daan when on the pitch, focused and determined to chase the ball and get it off of you with all her feistiness and skill. The goal kick is taken, but Beth doesn’t notice. She’s too busy looking at someone. Jill passes the ball to Beth and Beth misses it, it goes outside the line.

“Get’cha head in the game” Jill sings in Beth’s direction.

These feelings are not turning into focus. The game isn’t the only love here anymore. 

-

When Beth is about to put her phone away and go to bed that night, daniellevddonk tags her in a story. 

It’s one of the pictures of training today, where her and Daan are in their duel. She’s added two nut emoji’s to the story and then Beth’s username, because she megged her right after that picture. Beth did not need to be reminded of that. 

Beth sends her a middle finger emoji, and adds:

“Oops sorry, forgot I need to respect my elders” 

“Oooh, 1-1 now” Daan replies immediately. 

“I like the sound of that boss” Beth chuckles while sending that. 

Daan likes that message, and then goes on to ask “How ya doin” with the smirking emoji. Beth loves the friends reference. And thinks back of how Daan fell asleep on her on the plane. 

She says she’s fine and asks her how she is. 

Daan says she’s all good too and goes on to ask Beth if she watches Love Island because she needs someone to talk about tonight’s episode with. Beth quickly answers yes, tonight’s episode was wild. They talk about it and the candidates a little. From Love Island, the conversation goes on to what they expect from a partner, what they want in a relationship. It’s crazy how they keep saying “same” and “exactly”, having the same perception of love. They keep bantering away until Daan tells Beth to get some sleep because they have an early gym session tomorrow. The goodnight message with a heart makes Beth smile from ear to ear.

-

7.30 am. Another day of training. When Beth’s alarm goes off she growls at the sound. She doesn’t want to wake up. She reaches out her arm to snooze it and closes her eyes again, but she can’t get back into the dream she was having. When she opens her eyes, she sighs. She was dreaming of Daan. She stares at the ceiling for a good couple of minutes trying to recall all the details, but she only remembers the dream in flashes. Daan had come down to Beth’s home with a bottle of wine. They got drunk and then Daan kissed her. 

She should probably get up and get ready. She’s running late. 

Preparing breakfast, having breakfast, brushing her teeth... the dream won’t leave her head. When Beth checks her phone, she secretly hopes Daan has send her a good morning text after their fun chat last night. That isn’t the case. She does have a text from Maria. Her hook up from the weekend. 

“Had so much fun with you. Wanna go for coffee next weekend? Get to know each other better?

She ignores it.

-

Beth arrives to work in time. The first person she comes across in the hallway is Daan. 

“Goodmorning, sleep well?” Daan asks she walks out of her office and bumps into Beth, taking a bite of a banana she’s just peeled. 

It’s like she can sense she was in her dreams. 

“Yes I did” Beth tells her.  
When entering the Arsenal Gym, Beth walks up to Jill. They chat away a little while waiting for the S&E coach to arrive. 

“She texted me this morning, the woman from our night out” Beth informs Jill. 

Jill gives Beth a push. “Ohh what did it say?”

“She wants to go for coffee”

“Are you gonna go?” 

Beth takes a quick glance at Daan, who’s only standing about 4 feet away. She’s definitely not gonna go. But maybe she should say that she is. It will make Daan jealous. Ever since she talked about it with Jill and Leah in the lounge room, Daan only seems to want her attention more, where as during their training camp it had felt like Daan had been trying to write her off.

“Yes. I said yes actually. I think that maybe we could be a serious thing, she’s cute” 

Beth immediately takes another glance at Daan. She’s looking the other way, but she must’ve heard it. 

Daan feels the same jealous feeling as the previous morning immerse again. Hearing Beth talk about someone else just makes her slightly angry and frustrated, she just wants to be the only woman on Beth’s mind. Her longing for her is deep. 

The S&C coach has arrived and gives the girls their assignments for today: weighted press ups, ropes, some weight lifting and other upper body magic.

Beth starts with weighted press ups. She hates those the most. So it is best to get it over with. After she’s done with the press ups she lets herself fall onto the mat with a deep sigh. She feels like a floundering fish that’s been taken out of water, gasping for air.

“Hey” Daan kneels in front of the mat Beth’s done her press ups on. 

Beth’s surprised with her showing up in front of her out of nowhere. She doesn’t know if the warm, clammy feeling creeping up on her is because of the work out or because of her boss. Her mouth falls open a little as Daan tilts up her chin. 

Daan looks around to see if there are any other girls in close range. There aren’t. She lowers her tone but speaks clear: 

“I don’t like hearing about you hooking up around town Meado, focus on your work” 

Daan gets up again, leaving Beth behind startled like she’d done a couple of times before. She knows what she just said was provocative and stupid, but it’s like playing chess. Beth makes a move to get her attention, She makes a move back to get Beth’s attention.  
Beth pulls herself up and takes the weighted vest off of her, but it doesn’t make her chest feel less heavy. She’s still caught off guard and walks onto the ropes probably looking fairly confused and lost. 

“What did dvd say to you there?” Pernille asks as she lets the ropes fall for Beth to take over. She’d seen their manager walk up to her teammate and thought it looked weird, especially now that she scans such a concerned look on Beth’s face. 

“Oh uh- to keep up with the rest. You know upper body is not my strong suit.” 

“Good luck with the ropes” She pets Beth’s shoulder and chuckles as she walks off. 

Beth realizes that she has to address Daan about this. “Focus on work”? She is the reason she can’t focus in the first place.

When the ropes are done with, Beth drinks some water from her water bottle and walks up to Daan, who is talking to the S&C coach Mark on the side. 

“Can I talk to you personally in your office?” 

“Uhh, only if Mark allows you to miss a bit of this gym session” Daan glances at him. Beth appears worried which makes it look like it’s important, and that makes Mark vote in. 

“Go ahead, but don’t take too long.” 

“What’s wrong?” Daan asks when they arrive at her office. She leans back against her desk as Beth closes the door and sits down on the couch in the corner, resting her elbows on her thighs and holding her hands pressed together. 

“You’re the reason I can’t focus on work and you know it.” Beth confesses, avoiding eye contact. 

“Can you explain that?”

“Don’t pretend like you don’t know what I’m talking about.” 

She looks her manager right in the eyes now. 

“Why do you keep flirting with me? It’s super unprofessional. You could lose your job.”

“Hmm. Your face. This face. Is worth the risk. I can’t help it Beff” 

Daan has to bit her lip to stop herself from smiling. It will make it seem like she doesn’t take this seriously. 

“Is this a game? You think you can keep playing around and making me feel like this?” 

Beth her voice when she’s worked up is higher-pitched and her northern accent comes out strong. She’s really heated by this all, her cheeks flushed. 

She stands up from the couch and walks up to Daan. She’s not too confident about what she’s doing, but she’s just done with this and feeling so confused. Daan needs to be put in place. 

Her eyes look a darker type of blue in the office lighting, Daan notices as she comes up closer. 

“Feel like what?” Daan asks, her eyes sparkling in anticipation. 

Beth stares at Daan’s lips. She has to hold herself back from kissing them. She’s not going to do it. She’s not going to be the one to- 

She’s kissing Daan. 

Daan kisses her back with passion, a smirk slipping in between because she finally got the girl this crazy for her. It’s so not allowed but it feels so good. She’s wanted this ever since she first got Beth in her office. 

She tries to take over control. That makes Beth back down for a second. 

“No. I boss you around now” Beth argues while staring deep into Daan’s dark, bewildered eyes.

“Oh so that’s how we’re gonna play the game?” Daan mutters, her breath heavy as Beth leans in to take it away again. 

She wraps her hand around Daan’s neck and pushes her onto her desk with it whilst kissing, telling her that this is indeed how they’re playing the game. It makes all the set up pictures and a map clatter onto the floor. They both don’t care, both caught up in the euphoric feeling of breaking the tension that’s been there since the day one. 

But then there’s a knock on the door.


End file.
